December 13, 2018

We may have just finished with Hannukah; Christmas and New Year's Day will be here soon. Yet - time marches on and before you know it, spring will arrive and with it - the Gopher Regional 2019!

Patti Stuhlman and Sue Jackson, our co-chairs, are already working hard with their volunteers to present a great tournament next May.

The schedule is here. Not too early to be grabbing your favorite partner, putting together your teams and aiming at a loads of fun and success at Gopher Regional 2019! May 20th through 26th; save those dates!

May 30, 2018

One of our area's super star couples - Bob and Cindy Balderson. Grandkids Louisa and Joseph are not yet to be found at the bridge table. Yet they are both fierce War competitors! Sure Grandpa and Grandma are going to get 'em ready soon; watch out, world!

And - a quiet bridge hero. Warren Cedarborg, who joins wife Suzanne along with Sharon and Roger Anderson for many (frequently) successful team games, faced our team one round. Our side claimed down one on a part score hand - and - Warren paused for a bit. "I think we only took 4 tricks," Warren commented.

We went through the play - and - Warren was correct. Yes, all players are supposed to let the opposition know when a trick goes to their side and yet it is not warranted. But we all know that not all players would speak up.

Kudos to Warren for not only being an excellent player - but - a most ethical one, too!

Kudos to all who won, who placed, who learned more about our game. Thanks to Mike Cassel for highlighting successes throughout the week in his Bulletins.

Overall masterpoint winners list shows that again, your webmaster is one of the most fortunate players on the planet. Big thanks from me to our super father-son duo, Vern and Monte Evans, along with long suffering partner Bill Kent, for dragging me across the finish line with 105 and change.

May 27, 2018

One final day remaining for the Gopher Regional 2018! And - one final Gopher Bulletin to share with you.

Mike Cassel has done a superb job of thanking the many people who contributed mightily to having a fine tournament. Big thanks to our tournament chairmen, Patti Stuhlman and Sue Jackson. Of course, without our directing staff, headed by Peter Wilke, our many volunteers and our caddies, the show could not go on!

And - our thanks to all the competitors who played in the Gopher, ranging from new I/N competitors to our long time experts - and - everyone inbetween. With many tournaments over the holiday week, we are delighted that you chose the Minnesota Gopher to compete and meet with all your friends!

Have a fun last day of the tournament - and a meaningful and fine Memorial Day with friends and family.

May 16, 2018

The Gopher Regional 2018 will be here in just five days! We're looking forward to a great tournament and a great turn-out! If you don't have all your games set, we have a welcoming partnership desk that is ready and able to help.

Daily Bulletin editor Mike Cassel has already produced our first Bulletin; it is posted below. And, Mike has additional information he'd like to share. (A copy of the Gopher 2018 flyer is also below.)

We are doing all we can to make sure YOU have a super tournament! Hope to see you Monday afternoon and every day of Gopher 2018!

All primetime pair and teams are now morning afternoon with the KOs and 2 session swisses moving from aft./evening.

Morning Swiss dwindled... it has been replaced with a pair of 2-session Evening Swiss Teams

Tue Wed and Thu Fri. Single session team entries will NOT be accommodated. Folks need to plan to play both sessions... they will be paying for both!!

To do so the single session evening Swiss is gone. The only single session evening team game is a Pair/Team event on Saturday. That will be the only event in that time slot and gives people two chances to win masterpoints.

The evening I/N game has been taken off the schedule. I/N players up to 499 MPs can play as Flight C in the evening side series. Even better for them, if they score well in two of the side games they can win gold points.

The big news regards a new KO format. With the help of the ACBL we have an event that will NOT be handicapped in one bracket. The ACBL, with our input, has a KO experiment this year with KO brackets fewer than 9 teams that don't penalize the overall awards. There is an information sheet already published on the blog describing the first day complete round-robin qualifying four teams to a KO semifinal. Semifinal losers will play off for 3/4 overall. Even a bracket as small as 5 (hopefully we won't have such small ones) will qualify four teams to the semifinal and ALL 4 TEAMS will receive overall awards.

The side series have become horizontal during the week: morning, afternoon, and evening.

A new weekend side series includes two NEW sessions on Sunday. This series, like the evening series, will have an expanded Flight C up to 500MPs.

The last page of Bulletin #1 has a FAQ section describing the changes.

May 11, 2018

Steve Gaynor has shared the new format that will be in place for the Gopher Regional this month.

Thanks for the explanation, Steve! Good luck to all our team competitors - enjoy and do well!

NEW EXCITING KNOCKOUT FORMAT AT 2018 GOPHER REGIONAL

The Gopher schedule committee has devised a way to improve the Knockouts by lowering the number of teams in each bracket. The ACBL has approved it for use in this year’s regional. Here are some of the new features:

Fewer teams per bracket so players have a better field of their peers against whom to compete.

Two sessions to qualify for the ‘final four’. More chances to win master points.

Higher percentage of teams get to the overalls.

Round robin format for the first two sessions means not worrying about a tough draw to start. You play everyone in the bracket.

Pair style movement means you play all teams in your bracket, everyone plays the same hands and we can give you hand records at the end of each session.

Ideally there will be 7 teams in each bracket. You will play six rounds of four boards each in the first session and repeat that in the second session. That will total 8 boards versus each of the other 6 teams. Each match will be scored by IMP’s on the 20 victory point scale but use a pair game style movement.

The top four teams by Victory points will advance to the head to head semi-final session the next day. All four teams will pay for two sessions. The winners of that session will play each other for their bracket championship. The losers will play off for third/fourth place. This event pays four overall awards.

FAQ:

Why 7 teams?

Based on last year’s entries, this will give us the chance to run at least two brackets. The movement is very easy with an odd number of teams. Even numbers are complicated.

Why a playoff for 3rd place?

One of the points of the experiment is that there would be a playoff for 3rd/4th place.

Can we still have 5 or 6 player teams?

Yes. As long as each player plays at least 50% of all boards each day. If a player sits out a full session, they must play the entire amount of the next session. Right now there will be no substitutions during a session. Either you play the whole session or none of it.

Will the pair games be playing the same hands?

Yes. Compare results with friends in the pair game. You can discuss the strategic differences playing pairs versus IMP’s. It may be a great and fun learning experience.

What if we lose the semi-final and do not want to play for 3rd place? Do we get our money back, or can we enter another event?

No. However, the difference in payoff for 3rd place over 4th will most likely be worth more than you could get in a one session event, and it is for Gold points.

February 13, 2018

The Twin Cities survived the excitement of the Super Bowl. So now it's time to focus on our bridge "Super Bowl" of the year: the Gopher Regional!

Starting on May 21st, we promise beautiful weather along with an excellent new site! Near the Mall of America, convenient to MSP airport and loads of restaurants and shopping, the Gopher will be held at the lovely and spacious Crowne Plaza Aire.

Get ready for great events, hospitality and bridge. And - take advantage of another superb opportunity at the Gopher: honor a friend, relative, bridge buddy or whomever you like with the gift of a Named Event! Sue Jackson (sjackson@smumn.edu) can give you all the details about how to put your special someone up in lights.

June 01, 2017

There's no doubt that the bridge world in the U.S. is an aging community. And for many of us, it's a puzzle. College was a common place for students to pick up the game. Lots of young marrieds did, too, enjoying home games as their new babies slept through set after set.

In the last decades, however, something changed. While many of us play on and on as we age, not seeing fresh faces at club games and tournaments has been a disappointment.

My apologies for not having the names of these intent students who traveled to Minnetonka for regional events this past week. I hope that they know, however, how glad we were to see them! And - we hope, too, that they will continue to play and learn and compete - as many of us have for over half a century.

May 31, 2017

Our second year at the lovely suburban site of Minnetonka has concluded. Everyone enjoyed another great Gopher Regional - and - so many people to thank for their year long efforts at producing such a fine tournament. But first - results and accolades!

721 players earned 6354 masterpoints at the Gopher. Yet, at the very top of the list, only one person surpassed the 100 masterpoint mark: Kerry Holloway. Kerry's almost 114 masterpoints were his personal best - not to mention quite impressive for a tournament that is not huge. Kerry played with 7 different partners and 7 different systems (!!!!) - quite the feat in and of itself. At the end of the day - four wins, two 2nds and another overall. Wow!

Usually we see a big smile on Kerry's face. Yet, his concentration surely paid off at the Gopher to achieve such a fine performance. Lots of applause for someone who is not only one of our top players - but - one of our most popular, too.

Another team of players produced an impressive masterpoint total and showing. Kudos to the team of Sharon and Roger Anderson and Warren and Suzanne Cederborg. The Anderson-Cederborg contingent reached almost 95 masterpoints for the week!. And, Tony Ames was a point behind them, scoring 93.71.

Of course, the production of a fine tournament like the Gopher is the result of loads of diligent efforts throughout the year. A huge "thank you" to tournament Co-Chairs Patti Stuhlman and Sue Jackson; we are so lucky to have them! Mike Cassel produced a week of extensive daily Bulletins (please note all are now posted); Carol Rynders was the matchmaker for partnerships. We are grateful, too, for the many other volunteers and helpers who contributed to the regional.

Another large "thank you" goes to Peter Wilke, DIC, and his capable directing staff.

Finally - our thanks to you, the competitors. Memorial Day week has many regionals available; we are so delighted that the Gopher was your regional of choice!

Please enjoy the photos below of some of our players as they fiercely battled at Gopher 2017!

May 22, 2017

We look forward to the kick-off of Gopher Regional 2017! To those coming from near and far - welcome - and have a great time competing at this year's tournament!

With the loss of Larry Oakey, a new event has been added to honor him. Co-Chairman Patti Stuhlman displayed the beautiful trophy that will bear the name of the first winning pair in the Larry Oakey Memorial Pairs. Thank you, Patti, for finding such a fitting trophy for TGLO, proudly shown at the Twin City Bridge Center remembrance and fundraising game for Larry Sunday.

Your blogmaster of course will be at the Gopher and has a very busy schedule! We look forward to reporting about Sunday's memorial, the end of the Minneapolis Grand Slam Club's 2016-2017 season - and, of course, the Gopher! Just might take a bit of extra time to get everything posted....